Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me

The Netflix documentary Making a Murderer is another example of how more is more. True crime documentaries used to be confined to the length of a film or an episode of Dateline — now storytellers can go really deep.

Programs like Murderer and podcast Serial highlight a new sort of problem for the audience: you’re just a swipe away from knowing how it ends.

Consider this: I’m 15 minutes deep into the final episode of Making a Murderer. Right now, I’ve got no idea whether Steven Avery will be acquitted — but it would take me about three seconds to find out how the story concludes.

Looking up anything about the case or the show may give it away in an instant, maybe not ruining it, but certainly watering down the suspense. Unlike reviews of movies and books, news headlines don’t bury their spoilers.

Chalk up dramatic tension up on the list of things the internet has changed. We are not meant to know what’s around every corner.